If you crave sound quality on a par with (or even better than) a CD but enjoy the freedom that comes from carrying music on your iPhone or iPad, it's time to look at lossless audio. Files in formats such as Apple Lossless Audio Codec (ALAC) or Free Lossless Audio Codec (FLAC) are larger than MP3 and AAC files, but they tilt the quality/size balance in favour of sound quality. The algorithms shrink the file size, but allow the original to be reconstructed exactly. Lossless files come in at 40- to 60 percent of the size of uncompressed CD files. Listening to lossless files on an iOS device can be seamless or may require effort, depending on the format. For starters, Apple's Music app for iOS natively supports the company's own ALAC format.
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